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The most valuable team of the Group Stage
Michael Haga had a crucial impact on Djurgården reaching the Playoffs.

With the Group Stage over, there's no better time to evaluate all the players' performances and pick the most valuable team of the first six Game Days with the use of advanced statistics. Each team is different, and we take this into consideration. Therefore, this squad contains those who have contributed the most to their respective teams.

Milan Gulaš (HC Pilsen)

Milan Gulaš showed the value he has for Pilsen again during Game Day 2 when he netted the very first hattrick of this CHL season, and added three assists in his side's spectacular 9-3 win against Rungsted. But this was only a warmup for the Czech sniper, as he put up another six points and five goals during the remaining four games (he missed one) to end the six-game Group Stage with 12 points (8+4), good enough to secure his place as the second top scorer in the competition. Although he needed three more points to share the honour with Ryan Lasch, Gulaš at least came top of the top goal scorer leaderboards, as no other player was able to beat the opposing goalie more than eight times. His achievements are even more outstanding when considering that the second-best Pilsen player, Vojtěch Něměc, only racked up five points. Therefore the 33-year-old was his team's top scorer by the biggest difference in the whole CHL.

Michael Haga (Djurgården Stockholm)

Five points in one night, that's definitely not something you see every day, but Michael Haga did exactly that during Game Day 5 against Mannheim. This impressive haul sky-rocketed him to the highest level of the CHL's productivity ranking. However, Haga was impressive throughout the entire Group Stage. The Norwegian winger was racking up the points very consistently over the whole six-game Group Stage, which allowed him to finish with a total of 10 points (3+7), just a point short of third place in the CHL. No wonder he became Djurgården's top scorer, and scored five more points than any other forward on his team. His stats are even more impressive when considering Djurgården only scored 20 goals in the Group Stage, which means Haga was directly involved in 50% of his team's goals.

Mark Arcobello (SC Bern)

It was also a one-man show in Switzerland... at least when only counting out-skaters. Mark Arcobello, a former NHLer who spent four years in the league, really came up trumps for Bern and played a big role in them advancing to the Playoffs. The American put up eight points (3+5) in those six games, finishing the Group Stage at the top of the Swiss team's points leaderboard, a solid three points ahead of his best teammate. Furthermore, SC Bern were only able to score 17 goals, which means Arcobello was responsible for 47.06% of their successful shots. Add this to a fantastic 56.38% faceoff win rate, and fifth-highest amount of blocked shots, and it's more than clear who was the main man upfront for the team based in the Switzerland's capital.

Jakub Krejčík (Kärpät Oulu)

The only defenceman in the whole competition to finish the Group Stage as his team's top scorer! Jakub Krejčík was able to score a total of six points (3+3) during his six-game stint which made him share the team's top scorer title with Jesse Puljujärvi and Michal Krištof, and he finished second among the CHL D-men only three points short of Olle Alsing. But Krejčík's game isn't about racking up those numbers, he also finished with a Kärpät-best +5 in the plus-minus ranking, and during his presence on the ice, 67.84% of all the shot attempts created were executed by Oulu, which is the fifth-highest number among all players with at least 15 minutes of time on ice per game played. Arguably the most all-rounded defenceman in this CHL season, however, will be the only player in this list we won't see any more of this year as Kärpät were eliminated by an inferior head-to-head record with SC Bern.

Olle Alsing (Djurgården Stockholm)

What a rise it has been for the 23-year-old defenceman this season! In the CHL, Olle Alsing completely blew the D-men productivity ranking out of the water by scoring three times and assing teammates on another six goals. This meant he finished the Group Stage with 9 points (3+6), three more than any other defenceman in the Group Stage. Just like Norwegian forward Haga, Alsing also had a breakout game on Game Day 5 when he set up three for his teammates and scored one himself. An impresive performance for a player who played in the Swedish second-tier only two years ago.

Niklas Schlegel (SC Bern)

Mark Arcobello had without doubt the biggest effect on SC Bern's qualification success amoung skaters, but probably the key cog in this Swiss machine was located in between the pipes. Their starting goalie Niklas Schlegel guarded his net with an exceptional 96.38% save percentage, better than the second-best starter Dominik Hrachovina by 1.14% and third-highest among all netminders. Over the four games he played in, Schlegel only conceded five goals - meaning he was able to push his GAA down to 1.20, and made a total of 128 saves. Considering his amazing Group Stage numbers he is most likely to step in the crease in all the Playoff games Bern will play, will he finally get his first shutout of this CHL season?

 
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